The Ugly Republicans: Angry, Violent Liars
On Sunday, Joy and I ventured into Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst to campaign for Steve Harrison, the Democrat running for the NY-13 Congressional seat against Vito Fossella. While doing so, we came up against just what is wrong with the Republican party: sleazy lies, threats and smears.
We were handing out Harrison literature outside a Catholic Church, clearly identifying our literature as being for "Steve Harrison for Congress." People in Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge were far more polite about accepting campaign literature than I found in my own Park Slope where people tended to look at us like we were insects. People coming out of the church were gracious and smiling. There were two supporters of the Republican candidate Vito Fossella there competing with us, which is no less than I would have expected.
One of the Republicans was a perfectly polite man. But his companion was a nasty troll of a woman who was a clear illustration of the complete lack of decency or values that plagues the Republican party today.
First of all, these two Republicans were not being honest about what they were handing out. Their flyer was Vito Fossella campaign literature, but as they handed it to people, they identified it as being about Catholic education. What, are they so embarassed about their candidate that they can't utter his name? Will no one take their flyers if they identify it as Fossella campaign literature? Come one, Republicans. Can't you be up front and honest for ONCE? No, I guess not. So they claimed they were passing out literature about Catholic education, never identifying it for the kind folks of Bay Ridge as Fossella campaign literature.
Then when someone asked which candidate (having been handed both pieces of lit and seening both names) was the Republican, I identified Fossella as the Republican and Harrison as the Democrat. The sneering Fossella woman actually jumped in to claim Fossella was Independent and got angry when we pointed out that he was a Republican and voted 90% of the time with Republican party line. She actually tried to get us to shut up as if the worst thing we could do is identify her candidate as Republican and point out the truthful statement that he voted solidly Republican. They cannot be honest about their candidate! He really IS a Republican and is one of Bush's most loyal Congressmen. Why can't she be honest about that!
Sick of having us point out to people that they were handing out Republican campaign literature (as if they were embarassed by that) the trollish woman actually walked past me and shoved into me. Apparantly being faced with the truth she became violent. But then she compouned it by turning to her companion and LIED TO HIM, telling him that I bumped into her. You can ask anyone I have campaigned opposite, including Yassky and Clarke supporters I chatted with during the primaries. I respect people's rights to campaign for candidates I am opposed to and I know full well that shoving someone is legally assault and battery. But this amoral Republican not only was willing to shove someone who was revealing the truth about her candidate (that he was Republican!) but would lie about it.
Is this what Republicans are all about today? Lying, violence and more lying. Not to mention that they are scared to death that people will realize Fossella is Republican! Don't they realize that on the ballot he will be clearly and properly identified as a Republican, NOT as an Independent? Has the Republican party become so horrible that they can't face the public and admit that they support a Republican.
Read my lips: VITO FOSSELLA IS A REPUBLICAN. He is NOT Independent in any way, shape or form. He is one of the most solidly Republican people in Congress. Why are you denying it?
Later, as we covered an election district elsewhere in Bay Ridge, Joy and I picked up a piece of Fossella literature that was on the sidewalk. Now it is clear that the lying of the Republican woman at the church comes straight from Fossella himself. Fossella was claiming that Steve Harrison would prevent the government from monitoring terrorists, making Americans less safe.
That is a lie. Period. And they probably know it. Harrison, like me and like most Democrats and ALL libertarians, oppose unConstitutional wiretapping of American citizens, something both Bush and Fossella support. Such illegal wiretapping is un-American, un-Constitutional and disgusting and, remember this, has NEVER exposed one single terrorist ever. What Harrison and most Democrats and all libertarians support is the LEGAL wiretapping of ANYONE that the government has probably cause to monitor, following American, Constitutional procedure that makes us better than the terrorists. Giving up our American values and our Constitution, which is what Fossella supports, means the terrorists have succeeded in destroying America because we will cease to be America.
Harrison's campaign literature is just as full of lies as his followers.
Republicans have abandoned all morality, all values...they have abandoned the truth. They have abandoned decency. They have abandoned America.
To Vito Fossella and the trollish Fossella follower: lies, violence and abandoning the Constitution are NOT what America needs or wants.
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2006 Elections | Activism | Campaigning | Elections | GOTV, Get Out The Vote | Politics | Sleaze | Barking crazy rightwingers | Brooklyn | Staten Island
Thanks for visiting
Submitted by Brooklyn Republican (not verified) on 6 November 2006 - 11:12am.
What really strikes me is how you feel the need to travel for your political 'work'. Gee, thanks so much for gracing us with your presence. Maybe you can bring us down some of your Park Slope intelligence.
Likely not however, as your post makes what I'm sure you consider a typo: "Harrison's campaign literature is just as full of lies as his followers." That's closer to the truth than you think.
I fully expect that to be edited by the time most people read it.
The fact of the matter is Vito Fossella is a perfect representative of his district:
- He may identify with a party, but he isn't led by it -- just like the voters in his district.
- He supports Bush most of the time, but not all the time -- just like the voters in his district.
- He's conservative -- just like the voters in his district.
- He strongly and unabashedly supports the war against terrorism, including using any means possible to keep us safe; something his opponent clearly opposes (as you clearly spelled out for us) -- just like the voters in his district.
I know you're filled with courage from the echo chamber of liberal blogs you get all your information from, but since I doubt you would go into a stranger's house without being invited in, don't make that same mistake politically without doing your research and knowing your facts.
Fact #1: Vito's job is to represent his district -- not Park Slope. And he does that remarkably well.
Fact #2: That Harrison has to reach outside of the district to recruit cynical campaign workers like yourself proves how out of touch he is with the district and that he has no base here.
If I may jump in here...
Submitted by Bouldin on 6 November 2006 - 12:10pm.
...I'd note just a few things.
- Vito F. is the most loyal republican in this state. He votes the party line 92% of the time. If that's independence, then what does servile bootlickery look like?
- If the district really likes Vito's brand of right-wing extremism so much, why is he running away from his party label?
- Out of district volunteers testify to Harrrison's attractiveness; besides, Vito's campaign manager is from out of state.
- In terms of terror, Vito supports a party that thinks it's a good idea to publish nuke plans on the web. He opposed the creation of the 9/11 commission, flip-flopped on that, went on to oppose mandatory container screening for all cargo entering the United States, and hasn't done frak-all on oversight of the useless Department of Homeland Security. He didn't even have the decency to distance himself from republican terrorist Ann Coulter's smear of 9/11 widows.
So, you were saying?
Thanks for responding
Submitted by mole333 on 6 November 2006 - 12:50pm.
First of all, thanks for responding, even though your did NOT respond to the issues raised in the diary. Still, as far as I know this site doesn't censor anyone reasonable, be they Green or Republican.
So, first off, you don't address the points of hypocricy and immorality that are plaguing the Republican party. Look, any Democrat in Brooklyn knows there is corruption in the Dem party and I have written about that many times. In fact few sites have aired as much internal dissent within the Democratic Party as this site. But there is NOTHING in the Dem party to match the sleaziness of Abramoff, Fossella, Sweeney, Taft, Ney, Cunningham, DeLay, Foley, Reynolds, etc. Also, Democrats tend to fight corruption within their own ranks, as evidenced by the calls for William Jefferson to resign and the fact that Clarence Norman was jailed by a Democratic DA. In the Republican camp I see no such reform movement. Instead they protect eachother, lie for eachother and circle the wagons like they did for Foley even though he was soliciting sex from a minor. My friend, that was covered up for six years, it now turns out, and yet Republicans were lying about a mere month ago.
You are wrong about Fossella's representing the district in Washington. Even the Staten Island Advance admitted that Fossella only does so when he knows the voters are paying close attention. When he thinks no one is paying attention, he votes against our troops, against NYC and against Social Security. He votes against the interests of Brooklyn and Staten Island. Even the SI Advance admits that in their damning-with-faint-praise endorsement of Fossella.
When you look in detail at issues, Harrison, who is no liberal himself, matches the district at least as much as Fossella. On Social Security, Fossella flip-flops, while Harrison is solidly with the majority in the district.
As to security, you are wrong again. Fossella backs the war in Iraq which even top military personnel and intelligence agencies admit has made us less safe and has detracted from the war against terrorism. Fossella opposes screening all cargo that enters our ports, something that would address the biggest threat to the US. Yet Fossella supports un-Constitutional wiretapping which has never caught a single terrorist yet! More traditional, LEGAL methods with due process has worked better than these un-Constitutional violations of civil rights. And I think there is a much stronger libertarian streak in the district than you credit and they detest this kind of Republican intrusion into the private lives of American citizens.
As to my coming from Park Slope, well my wife and I fought hard in the primaries right in our neighborhood. But now the closest real race is in NY-13. And if Karl Rove and Dick Cheney can come campaign for Fossella, I think I have every right to fight for NYC in NY-13 by campaigning for Harrison. I think, as a neighbor and friend of many in that district, and as a fellow New Yorker and witness to 9/11, I am closer to your interests than Dick Cheney and Karl Rove! Or do you prefer those two Washington insiders coming and insulting NYC without a word from Fossella?
Rabid animals are the
Rabid animals are the ugliest when they have allowed themselves to be backed into a corner, know there's no way out and are about to be caged.
-Go Steve!